It’s almost time to take up the hunt for MTG Arena decks for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt! We’re focused on potential Standard decks right now, but will go back at a later date and figure out how it changed the Historic meta! The digital release for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt was on September 16 (MTGO/MTG Arena) and the pre-release week for physical MTG was on September 17. The full, physical release of the game will be on September 24 it’s going to be a whole lot of fun for Magic players.

There are some real potential money cards and a lot of cards that are really going to be must-use for certain decklists. Of course, we’re going to talk about Werewolf decks, at least one. They’re back with a vengeance, and I have a feeling there might be a few options. As always, these first decks aren’t guaranteed to be world-beaters. I might highlight some as potential tier-1 decks though!

Before we talk about the decks for MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, let’s talk Mechanics!

We’ll come back as always and look at the best decks in MTG Arena. Juggling Day/Nightbound concepts seem like they will really separate the victors from the defeated. There are Day/Night cards now, which are represented by a Sun or Moon in the top left of the card. There are two ways to change the game time from day to night. The “Day” Info card reads:

“If it becomes day or night or if a day bound permanent enters the battlefield, track day/night for the rest of the game.”

The game doesn’t start in day or night. This won’t happen until you play a card that turns it into day or night. Starting this change as Night is far more uncommon. If it’s day, each of these cards will enter in the daybound form and vice versa. It’s also important to note these spells casting. A good example is Tavern Ruffian. The face-up form of these cards is always the “day” form. If it’s night when this comes into play it will be a Tavern Smasher, but casting the spell it will still be Tavern Ruffian. Until the spell resolves, it’s the face-up version.

How do you switch between Day and Night:

Day to Night: If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.

Night to Day: If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.

Only cards that have Daybound/Nightbound transform this way. Other cards that flip do not transform at this time. There’s also a new mechanic, Disturb. Some creatures have a Disturb cost, which lets you cast them from the grave. If you do, they come into play flipped over in their “Disturb” form. You can still respond to these (counter, etc). When these Disturb cards would leave play for any reason, you exile them instead.

Cards with Coven can only use these abilities if you have creatures with 3 different Power ratings. So if you have three creatures, and they have stats of ⅔, 1/1, and ¾, you can use whatever Coven power your card has. If they’re all 1/1s, then you’re out of luck. There are quite a few of these, but thankfully they seem to come in archetypes that involve buffing your creatures. It won’t be that hard to set up.

Without further ado though, let’s talk about decks worth playing in MTG Arena in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt!

There are a few ways to build this deck I think, but a few cards are absolutely essential to success. Tolovar, Dire Overlord, Kessig Naturalist, and Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope are all incredibly important. In particular, Tolovar, Dire Overlord’s Nighttime form is essentially Kessig Wolf Run on a creature. Kessig Wolf Run is a Land that allowed you to pay 1 red, 1 green, and X mana to give a creature +X/+0 and Trample until the end of turn. Tolovar, the Midnight Scourge has the ability to do this for a Wolf or Werewolf.

Kessig Naturalist just adds more mana when it attacks, but when it becomes Lord of the Ulvenwald, it grants other Wolves and Werewolves +1/+1 on top of that. So we certainly want that. We can nicely combine these with Arlinn, The Pack’s Hope’s Nightbound form, Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury. Now she’s a 5/5 Werewolf with Trample, Indestructible, and Haste. She’s big, she’s mean, and wants to win. How do we make this all fit together nicely in a night? Two words: Lunar. Frenzy. An incredible spell that I want to see one of in every Gruul Aggro deck right now.

It grants a creature of ours +X/+0 and First Strike and Trample until the end of turn. We’re looking to deal just enough damage to win with a single Wolf. It doesn’t have to be one that is our Arlinn, but we’ve got plenty of options. We can just mow people down with wolves, or be sneaky and win with a couple of precise, gruesome attacks. But since it’s Aggro, we’re likely going to be attacking often.

I’ll likely include a second interesting deck at the end of this because I think both strategies are equally viable. But I prefer a deck with Lunar Frenzy to secure wins with. This deck is a bit more range since it starts with more low-cost cards like Snarling Wolf in the early game. A solid 1/1, can gain +2/+2 for the turn, but only once a turn (for balance sake, likely). Since we have snow lands, we can also make early trades with Blizzard Brawl.

Giving our creature +1/+0 and indestructible in a fight is seriously underrated. Then, once turn 2 rolls around we have choices like Ranger Class and Kessig Naturalist. I love Ranger Class in this deck since it grants us a 2/2 Wolf, and Level 2 is especially great. Whenever we attack, a creature of ours gains a +1/+1 counter. We can play aggressively and be well rewarded for it. We also can’t forget Werewolf Pack Leader as another fantastic Werewolf for this deck.

Werewolf Pack Leader has Pack Tactics. If we attack with creatures that total power 6 or greater this combat, we draw a card. We can also pay 4 mana (1 green) to turn this 3/3 into a base 5/3 with Trample and is no longer Human for the turn. Then we combine this with Ranger Class for another +1/+1. If we have night-time conditions, and Storm-Charged Slasher, we can give it another +2/+0 and Trample. Now we have an 8/4 Trample, which is major damage. In the mid-game, if we’re worried, we can, if they only have one blocker, can Blizzard Brawl to kill that defender, and just swing in.

We can start bullying people pretty quickly, but once we have Tolovar, Dire Overlord, the fun really starts. Whenever a Wolf or Werewolf we control deals combat damage to a player, we draw a card, which is great. However, during our upkeep, we can disrupt the flow of time. If we have three or more Wolves/Werewolves, it becomes night, and then we transform any of our Human Werewolves we want.

Then when we have the mana, Tolovar, the Midnight Scourge is a quick way to win. Now it’s a 4/4, and it can pay 2 mana+X to make a Wolf or Werewolf gain +X/+0 and Trample. If only it had First Strike or Indestructible. Oh wait, we’ve got Arlinn! Honestly, Arlinn is pretty good. She has two sets of powers, Daybound/Nightbound.

Daybound:

+1: Until your next turn, you may cast creature spells as though they had Flash and each creature you control enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.

-3: Create two 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens.

Nightbound:

+2: Add 1 red and 1 green.

+0: Until the end of turn, become a 5/5 Werewolf creature with trample, indestructible, and haste.

The +1 Daytime power is incredible. We can hold off on our Werewolf Pack Leader, Reckless Stormseeker, or Primal Adversary until our opponent’s turn is happening. My favorite to cast with this is a mid/late game Primal Adversary which is amazing. When we cast this 4/3 with Trample for 3 mana, we can pay 2 extra mana (1 green) any number of extra times. When we pay this one or more times, put that many +1/+1 counters on Primal Adversary, then up to that many target lands we control become 3/3 Wolf creatures with Haste that are still lands.

I like this on my opponent’s turn so I have free mana to do what I please, like buff with Lunar Frenzy/Tovolar. From here, we just start throwing hands and buffing every single turn. Hopefully, our Kessig Naturalist is in play and is a Lord of the Ulvenwald for buffs, and a Storm-Charged Slasher for just a powerful Werewolf to hit with. The end goal is to just hit the other player and get as much board advantage as possible, and we’ve got more than enough Werewolves to do so.

With Arlinn’s +1 in the daytime, we can choose to play no creatures during our turn, play them on our opponent’s turn, and make sure the time shifts to night for us at convenient times. It’s just another thing that makes this deck so powerful. We can manipulate time in a couple of ways.

Alternate Decklist Thoughts:

I like this deck too, don’t get me wrong. It runs Unnatural Moonrise to turn things night if you need it in a pinch. It also gives a creature of yours +1/+0, Trample, and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.” It also features Flashback. It also runs a card I’m very fond of, Unnatural Growth. While expensive (4 Green+1 Colorless), it doubles the power and toughness of each creature you control until of turn. This happens on each player’s combat. I’d love to find room for this in the first deck, but I fear it’s too slow.

This deck in general feels a bit slower, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It also runs the Fangblade Brigand/Fangblade Eviscerator. That one has a fun power that grants creatures of yours +2/+0 for the turn, but that also takes 5 mana (1 red) in the Eviscerator form. The Brigand and Eviscerator both give +1/+0 and First Strike to itself for 2 mana (1 red). Hound Tamer is also in the deck, to give a +1/+1 counter to a creature (and has Trample) for 4 mana. Its nighttime form, Untamed Pup also gives Wolves/Werewolves trample, making it a viable pick if for no other reason. Other than these, the decks for MTG Arena: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt are pretty similar. I like both, so I wanted to briefly at least talk about this one too. I feel both are viable, but time will tell in how this deck will ultimately shape up.

Deck

4 Snarling Wolf

1 Lunar Frenzy

4 Blizzard Brawl

4 Kessig Naturalist

4 Ranger Class

4 Werewolf Pack Leader

2 Shatterskull Smashing

4 Tovolar, Dire Overlord

3 Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope

4 Rockfall Vale

4 Cragcrown Pathway

9 Snow-Covered Forest

5 Snow-Covered Mountain

4 Reckless Stormseeker

4 Primal Adversary

Alternate Deck

4 Unnatural Moonrise

4 Tovolar, Dire Overlord

2 Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope

4 Ranger Class

4 Werewolf Pack Leader

2 Primal Adversary

4 Kessig Naturalist

3 Hound Tamer

3 Fangblade Brigand

4 Blizzard Brawl

2 Unnatural Growth

8 Snow-Covered Forest

4 Snow-Covered Mountain

4 Cragcrown Pathway

2 Faceless Haven

4 Rockfall Vale

2 Shatterskull Smashing

Gruul is always fun, that’s for sure. Green/Red is a pretty reliable aggro color pairing, but I also think we shouldn’t underestimate a three-color combo. Green/Red/White might also be worthwhile. But right now, these are the most likely Werewolf decks I would consider running. It has a little control, and a lot of damage.

So, I was torn. There are two promising Dimir (Blue/Black) archetypes I’m a fan of right now. Neither one of them are Rogues either, and that makes me happier! We have Dimir Control and Dimir Zombies. Dimir Zombies is primarily all-new cards because most of the cool zombie stuff is new! I’ll cover both deck types here, but I want to start with Control. It’s a deck that focuses on the power of Professor Onyx and Mordenkainen to take command of the board, and a ton of awesome spells. It also uses the new The Meathook Massacre card as a way to make sure you gain life anytime your opponent loses creatures.

Spoiler warning: They’re going to lose a lot of them. It’s primarily counterspells, so we’ll probably talk about this one more in brief. Zombies on the other hand are a swarm of tokens that have Decayed. But we can remove that thanks to one of the cool new Blue Legendaries. That one is a bit more complicated, I think. So let’s start with Control.

If we’re just running counterplay and removal, we need an option to win the game with. Luckily, we don’t have to look far. A dutiful professor, that is in no way, Liliana. We have Professor Onyx, and with her ultimate, we can pretty much win free and easy. The odds are very high, anyway. On top of that, we have the Hall of the Storm Giants land that becomes a 7/7 Frost Giant. We combine Onyx with Mordenkainen, who swaps our deck with our library and gives us an unlimited hand size.

That way, we have every single card we need to win with. We’ll want a solid hand though, so we don’t just lose the next turn. Doing that with zero cards in hand is dangerous unless we win immediately afterward. So care needs to be exercised there. Though you can just use him for his +2, which draws 2 and puts a card in your hand on the bottom of your deck.

The whole deck is about dominating the board without a whole lot of creatures in play. If we can get a reasonably early The Meathook Massacre we can stay in play. Especially if your opponent is playing aggro. It’s a 2+X spell so if your opponent is running low-cost aggro, you’re likely only going to need 4 mana or so to potentially wipe the field. Plus you get life for every creature of theirs that dies.

We also gain life from The Celestus, which is a 3-cost Legendary Artifact. If it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day when this drops, and it can be tapped for mana. Then, you can use it with 3 mana to change the time of day (and tapping this at the same time) as a Sorcery. Anytime it changes from Day or Night, you gain 1 life and draw a card. If you do, discard one too.

You must keep Professor Onyx around though. Her +1 makes you lose 1 life and then look at the top three of your deck. One goes in hand, the rest in your grave. We’ll seldom use the -3, but it makes each opponent sacrifice a creature with the greatest power from among their creatures in play. That’s nice, butcher -8 reads “Each opponent may discard a card. If they don’t, they lose 3 life. Repeat this process six more times.”

We wear the other player down until they have an empty hand (or as close to empty as possible), and pop this. We aren’t playing many cards on our turn though. Gotta hold out for counterspells. Boy, do we have plenty. Negate, Jwari Disruption, Disdainful Stroke, and Saw It Coming. We’ve also got a pile of ways to deal with these problems after they crop up. Playing against low-cost tokens? Bloodline Culling is an amazing new card. For 3 mana, you can make a creature lose -5/-5, or make all creature tokens lose -2/-2 for the turn.

It’s a very flexible, very powerful piece in this deck. Poison The Cup destroys a creature too, so does Baleful Mastery (exile a creature or planeswalker). Flunk gives a target creature -X/-X until the end of turn, where X is 7 minus the number of cards that the player holds. It’s another pretty flexible way to remove a card from play.

Memory Deluge is another new card for control players – or any Blue deck. Look at the top X of your deck, where X is the amount of mana spent on this spell. It defaults to 4 but has a Flashback of 7. Pick two of those cards and put them in your hand, and the rest onto the bottom of your deck. An amazing way to pick out a few key cards for your future plays. It’s also an Instant, so you can drop it at the end of your opponent’s turn, or in response, to find a counter. Finally, if you need an extra turn to set this up, Alrund’s Epiphany, which also has Foretell, so you can cast it a bit cheaper.

The name of the game is knowing what your opponent you can do and counter the frustrating cards. I don’t think this is the final form of Dimir Control, and I’m wondering still if Esper Control would be a better call.

Dimir Control Deck

2 Professor Onyx

3 Baleful Mastery

2 Flunk

2 Jwari Disruption

3 Hall of Storm Giants

1 Disdainful Stroke

4 Clearwater Pathway

2 Mordenkainen

4 Saw It Coming

2 Poison the Cup

3 The Meathook Massacre

4 Memory Deluge

2 Bloodline Culling

2 Negate

2 The Celestus

2 Alrund’s Epiphany

4 Shipwreck Marsh

5 Island

9 Swamp

2 Shadows’ Verdict

Decayed is a new mechanic in MTG Arena for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. Creatures with Decayed can’t block and die after they’ve attacked. That sounds really bad to me! Can we fix it somehow? Poppet Stitcher says “Yes!” He creates a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with Decayed whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery. Then if at the beginning of your upkeep, if you control 3 or more creature tokens, he transforms into Poppet Factory. It changes creature tokens you control into 3/3s with no abilities. Honestly, this is probably going to be a key card in Izzet spells, but right now, we’re talkin’ Zombies.

The idea is that we play Poppet Stitcher on turn 3, and have plenty of 1-2 cost spells handy. Hopefully, we get a Champion of the Perished on turn 1, and maybe even on turn 2. They gain a +1/+1 counter anytime a Zombie comes into play for you. That way, they grow and grow into serious threats. That way, on turn 5 likely, we can change Poppet Stitcher into Poppet Factory. That way, however many tokens we have, now they’re 3/3s without Decayed.

One of the ideal spells to cast in those early turns is Rotten Reunion. It’s a 1-cost Instant with a 2-cost Flashback. It has us Exile up to one target card from a graveyard and crates a 2/2 black Zombie token with Decayed. So we can do it twice! If we have two of these in hand on turn 4, we can do it three times and will be set up for success.

We also want to see an early Bladestitched Skaab, which is a ⅔ Zombie that gives other Zombies of yours +1/+0. Heck, we even have a counterspell that makes a 2/2 with Decayed – Flip the Switch! It counters a spell unless its controller pays 4, and allows you to create a 2/2 black Zombie with Decayed. Startle is another new spell that makes one of these, that gives a creature -2/-0, and creates a 2/2 black Zombie with Decayed.

If we have an unstoppable army but our opponent isn’t safe to attack (or vice versa), we have another fun option: Siege Zombie! This is what we use on our opponent’s end step. Tap three untapped creatures you control: Each opponent loses 1 life! The more tokens we have, the better! Then we pack in some of the current powerful control/removal options. Soul Shatter, Infernal Grasp, Deadly Dispute. Then we have another optional card to help us win. Corpse Cobble is an Instant that lets us sacrifice as many creatures as we want with this 2-cost Instant.

We create an X/X Blue/Black Zombie creature token with Menace, where X is the total power of the sacrificed creatures. Now that is terrifying. If only we could give it a Trample. So if we sacrifice 4 or 5 Zombie creature tokens, we have a 12/12 or a 15/15 or something obnoxious. You can use this in response to creatures being removed with destruction spells. Say your Champion of the Perished is a 10/10 or something. You partner this with a few tokens, and then just swing at your foe until you win. It’s all about making sure Poppet Stitcher is in play, and that you let it transform at least once. It’s a must-remove for your opponents.

We also use one of the new Blue staples, in Consider. It’s essentially a new form of Opt. Look at the top card of your deck and you can put that in the grave. Then draw a card. Since we have so many Instants, we can hold off, and create our Zombies on our opponent’s turn, assuring we get the Poppet Factory as soon as possible.

Dimir Zombies Deck

2 Deadly Dispute

3 Shambling Ghast

3 Infernal Grasp

3 Flip the Switch

3 Rotten Reunion

3 Startle

3 Consider

1 Siege Zombie

1 Corpse Cobble

4 Bladestitched Skaab

4 Champion of the Perished

4 Shipwreck Marsh

1 Hall of Storm Giants

1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant

7 Swamp

7 Island

4 Clearwater Pathway

2 Soul Shatter

4 Poppet Stitcher

Both of these decks feel like they’ll be a ton of fun. Personally, I like Zombies more, despite being a primarily control player. I’m also a big fan of Zombie/horde decks, and we can do a lot of that here. Personally, I think Poppet Stitcher is going to be bigger and better in Blue/Red, but I think it offers plenty here. Since aggro is almost always king, this deck can keep you alive while you set things up. People will probably hesitate when you’re creating constant hordes of Zombies that become 3/3s safely. Zombies will no doubt see play and are going to be one of the more fun decks in the MTG Arena Innistrad: Midnight Hunt expansion. We’ve actually got one more fun Zombie deck to consider. It’s still very similar, so I’ll be as brief as possible.

Dimir Zombies: Jadar and Narfi

We’re taking a pair of Poppet Stitchers out of the deck and adjusting it slightly. We want to throw in Narfi, Betrayer King. He grants Zombie creatures and snow creatures +1/+1, and it can come back from the grave whenever you want (for 3 Snow Mana). We also threw in the Wight card from the D&D expansion. A 3/2 that comes into play tapped, and it creates a 2/2 black Zombie creature token whenever a creature that takes damage from it and dies during that turn. You also exile that card, giving that player one fewer card to potentially bring back.

There’s also another card to help Poppet Stitcher reliably make a huge army, and that’s Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. It’s a 1/1 for 2, and you create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with Decayed if you control no Decayed cards. So with Poppet Stitcher, that pretty much guarantees us another Zombie token every turn, provided we keep switching Poppet Stitcher. This one feels the best to me after some thought. Of course, it also has Ebondeath, Dracolich, which is yet another really frustrating Zombie. A Flash/Flying 5/2 that comes in tapped? Buffing it is going to be scary.

Deck

4 Champion of the Perished

2 Bloodchief’s Thirst

4 Shambling Ghast

4 Bladestitched Skaab

2 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

4 Wight

4 Tainted Adversary

2 Agadeem’s Awakening

2 Crippling Fear

2 Poppet Stitcher

2 Narfi, Betrayer King

4 Clearwater Pathway

2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant

4 Shipwreck Marsh

7 Snow-Covered Swamp

5 Snow-Covered Island

4 Infernal Grasp

2 Ebondeath, Dracolich

On a very personal level, I prefer Mono-Black Vampires. It’s a concept I played in tabletop MTG for a long time. Especially around the Zendikar block (original Zendikar). Rakdos Vampires have some tools that are primarily from this expansion, but Immersturm Predator will also have a home here, despite being a Dragon. Why? It’s a Vampire Dragon. Plus it’s an amazing card, and it will reward us for putting cards in graveyards – any graveyards, quite frankly. Between it and Nighthawk Scavenger, we can do some mean things to our foes.

Pretty much all of the RB Vampire decks I’ve seen so far have the same core components, but I prefer this one. It has discard and direct damage in it, and we can use these in the early game, or when we actively get ready to swing with Immersturm Predator.

This isn’t a deck that’s likely to swing with huge numbers, just frequent, very annoying numbers. We have lots of low-cost creatures, that pretty much all have something useful to bring. For example, the new Voldaren Stinger is a 1-cost 1/1, that has First Strike while attacking. You can also pay 3 mana to give it +2/+0 for the turn. So it’s a great aggressive attacker.

The Falkenrath Pit Fighter is another 1/1 1-drop and can be used to draw two cards if you pay two, discard a card and sacrifice a Vampire. Probably only going to be used in a pinch, to be honest. We can buff this slightly, with Vampire Socialite. An incredible two cost (1 Black, 1 Red) Vampire Noble, a 2/2 with Menace. When it comes into play, if our opponent lost life this turn, each other Vampire you control gains a +1/+1 counter. Then, as long as an opponent lost life this turn, Vampires you control enter play with an additional +1/+1 counter on it this turn.

How do we deal reliable damage though? Play With Fire helps. A 1-cost Instant, it deals 2 damage to any target. If that target was a player, you also Scry 1. You can use this to drop early-game creatures to swing safely, or you can just hit the player directly – the choice is yours. We also have Nighthawk Scavenger as an incredible flyer. It’s a 1+*/3 with Flying, Deathtouch, and Lifelink. Its power is equal to 1 plus the number of card types among cards in your opponents’ graveyards. So if our opponent has 4 different card types in the grave, it’s a 5/3. Vampire Socialite can give it +1/+1 too, and we have one final card to help one of our weaker Vampires grow.

Bloodthirsty Adversary is a 2/2 with Haste for 2 (1 Red). We can pay 3 mana (1 red) any number of times when this comes into play. For each time we pay this cost, this card gets a +1/+1 card, then we exile up to that many Instant and/or Sorcery cards from our grave with Mana Value 3 or less and copy them. You can cast these without paying the mana costs.

That means Play With Fire and Duress can both be cast this way. Technically we could cast Lunar Frenzy, but we want to play that only when we can pay the mana cost+X. It’s going to be our way to win with Nighthawk Scavenger and Immersturm Predator. We’ve used this once already because it’s great. It gives a creature of ours +X/+0 and First Strike/Trample for the turn at Instant Speed. We use this when it’s absolutely time to win the game. In theory, Immersturm Predator might get big enough on its own.

This 4-cost 3/3 Flyer gets a +1/+1 counter anytime it becomes tapped. We also have to exile one target card from a graveyard. It doesn’t have to be any particular type! Could be a land! Who cares?! You can also sacrifice another creature to give this Indestructible for the turn – which also taps it. You can buff this slowly with your weak creatures in response to blocking.

You also have Agadeem’s Awakening to bring a few cards back from the grave with different casting costs. This means you’ll have to be picky. You can use this as an option for blocking as well to tap him, make him indestructible, and buff him. That’s up to you! Florian, Voldaren Scion doesn’t especially make things better, but it’s a useful 3/3 with First Strike. At the beginning of your post-combat main phase, you can look at the top X cards of your deck. X is the total amount of life your opponents lost for the turn.

Exile one of these and put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. You can play that card this turn. As long as you have leftover mana, you can play a spell/creature. I appreciate that they also label is as playing a card, so if you missed a land drop, there you go! We can also put a stop to Tribal decks with (or all non-Vampires). Crippling Fear costs 4 mana, but it gives all creatures that aren’t a type you pick (Vampires) -3/-3. Great way to clear the board!

We’re going to swing when it’s clear, get those Nighthawks out, swing with those and the Immersturm as often as possible. If we happen to get enough mana free, a great Lunar Frenzy could see the way to victory too! If we can get a few back-to-back Vampire Socialites, and some life loss, it’s going to buff all our pals and make the game easier to win too. You’re going to push people around with Vampires.

Deck

4 Blightstep Pathway

3 Play with Fire

2 Agadeem’s Awakening

3 Duress

4 Mountain

5 Swamp

2 Den of the Bugbear

2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant

4 Haunted Ridge

2 Crippling Fear

2 Infernal Grasp

2 Lunar Frenzy

4 Vampire Socialite

4 Nighthawk Scavenger

4 Immersturm Predator

3 Florian, Voldaren Scion

4 Falkenrath Pit Fighter

4 Bloodthirsty Adversary

2 Voldaren Stinger

There’s again, still some fine-tuning to go, but I like the idea of what’s going on here. It’s got decent early-game damage, and once the mid-game goes, we flip a switch and start hammering people. Each time the Immersturm Predator attacks, it gets stronger and stronger! If we can partner it with Vampire Socialites, it can get bigger again, then we have Lunar Frenzy. Lunar Frenzy is incredible if we have more than both of our copies in hand. You can cast it once for less mana, and then again the next turn to secure a win.

This is a deck I’ve been dying to talk about. Now, it’s not Legacy Delver, which is a very powerful deck. It’s not even Modern Legacy Delver. But it features Delver of Secrets who got reprinted. Why did I want to see this deck? It’s all thanks to Poppet Stitcher/Poppet Factory. The ability to crank out non-stop zombies, inflate them and make them lose the “Decayed” status? Oh, you can’t beat that. Most of this deck is incredibly low-cost when it comes to Mana Value on top of that.

If you’re worried about that being our only win condition, well, don’t worry. There’s another combo in the deck that will help us get by. Thermo-Alchemist also got a reprint. It’s a nice way to keep repeated damage going, no matter what turn it was. We can also simply beat someone down with Delver of Secrets/Insectile Aberration, starting on turn 2. That’s why it’s so key to the deck.

At all phases of the game, we’ve got answers to problems. It’s a hybrid of Aggro and Combo. We’ve got aggro, in the form of Delver of Secrets. A 1-cost Blue 1/1 creature. We drop it on turn 1, then on Turn 2 (and every other turn Delver’s in play), we look at the top card of our deck. If we choose, we can reveal it. If it’s an Instant or Sorcery, transform Delver of Secrets. Then it becomes the Insectile Aberration, a 3/2 Flyer. It’s incredible and it’s powerful. If your opponent has no flyers, it’s free damage.

That’s what makes Delver such a dumb, powerful card. I absolutely love it. It’s not our only source of damage, but if we don’t get our Poppet or Thermo-Alchemist, it could still win. A wave of Delver jerks could easily win the game, with enough control/direct damage spells. After all, that’s most of what our deck is! So let’s talk about our next game-winner, Thermo-Alchemist! A 0/3 Defender, you can tap it to deal 1 damage to each opponent. That’s pretty decent. But whenever you cast an Instant or Sorcery, untap him!

The more mana and spells you have, the more you can do this. Most of the deck, again, are spells. We also have Magmatic Channeler who helps as well. It gains +3/+1 if we have four or more Instant/Sorcery cards in our grave, which would turn it from a ⅓ to a 4/4, for 2 mana. You can also tap it and discard a card to exile the top two cards of your deck. Then, pick one to play for the turn. Drop something useless, and gamble on something better!

Our final creature is the Poppet Stitcher, which is a 3-cost blue creature. A ⅔, it creates a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with Decayed anytime you cast an Instant or Sorcery. Then at the start of your upkeep, he transforms into the Poppet Factory if you control three or more creature tokens. The Poppet Factory will transform on your next turn back into the Stitcher, but while a Factory, he changes your Tokens to 3/3s that lose all abilities (bye, Decayed)!

We make an army of creatures to swing with, on top of all the other things the deck does. It’s majestic. So no matter which strategy you wind up with, it’s going to be a pure winner. New spells like Consider join classics like Into the Roil. A great spell, Into the Roil, returns a nonland permanent to its owner’s hand, and if it was kicked, you also draw a card. Consider is the new Opt, and that’s excellent.

We have another bounce card, Fading Hope. It returns a creature to its owner’s hand, and if it costs 3 or less mana, you Scry 1. Play With Fire makes another return to a deck, and it’s a great way to sneak out two damage. Spikefield Hazard is another excellent 1-cost Red Instant, and it deals 1 damage to any target. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead. Memory Deluge returns as well to fetch cards, and Shatterskull Smashing is back to deal damage to up to two creatures.

Expressive Iteration and Cathartic Pyre also exist as low-cost cards to trigger everything we need. Expressive Iteration looks at our top three and allows us to put one on the bottom of our deck, one into our hand, and exile one. The exiled card can be played this turn. Cathartic Pyre can either do 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker, or discard up to two cards, and draw that many.

Either way, you slice it, it’s incredible and useful. We slow down opponents by bouncing their creatures, flat killing them, and playing patiently until we start getting win conditions out.

Deck

4 Expressive Iteration

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Play with Fire

4 Cathartic Pyre

2 Fading Hope

4 Consider

2 Poppet Stitcher

4 Thermo-Alchemist

4 Magmatic Channeler

2 Memory Deluge

7 Island

1 Mountain

4 Frostboil Snarl

4 Riverglide Pathway

2 Spikefield Hazard

3 Shatterskull Smashing

2 Prismari Command

2 Into the Roil

1 Den of the Bugbear

Sideboard

2 Rowan, Scholar of Sparks

2 Suspicious Stowaway

2 Cinderclasm

4 Burning Hands

This is a very easy deck to grasp. The only hard part is using the spells at the right time. Knowing what your opponent can and cannot do is so important. Being able to flood damage in a few ways is really important. This is the deck I may be most likely to play. It’s pretty fast-paced, and if we can get a couple of those Thermo-Alchemists in play, it’s over. We’re going to bombard people from the skies with non-stop damage. Sure they can be removed by direct damage, but we also have bounce spells to return those creatures to safety! It’s just a blast.

If only we still had a way to play repeated lands per turn, this deck would be entirely horrifying. This deck is part aggro, part midrange. You could possibly win early, but it’s likely you’re instead going to just bulk and bulk, battering through people’s lines as your humans get bigger. Pretty much every card in this deck is a Human, except your lands, Join the Dance (which creates Humans), Sigarda, and Sigardian Savior – which are Angels. This isn’t Human Tokens like I wanted to see, but Humans are still a lot of fun.

This deck has some fun tech though. We can search the top of our deck for creatures, we can play lands and cast creatures from the top of our deck, and perhaps best of all, can get Protection from Werewolves. We can also use our Humans to tap for mana, and buff people too! Lots and lots of buffs. It’s a pretty simple deck, and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun to just run through people with.

We’re using a few cards from the previous expansions in Standard, but it’s primarily new cards! For example, Maja, Bretagard Protector, a ⅔ that grants other creatures of yours +1/+1. Plus, whenever a land comes into play for us, you create a 1/1 white Human Warrior creature token. This is going to be a bit harder to abuse since it’s a 5-cost Green/White Legendary. However, Katilda, Dawnhart Prime can help!

This new Human Warlock grants Protection from Werewolves and again, allows Human creatures to be tapped for 1 mana of any color. She also lets you put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control for 6 mana and tapping her (1 White, 1 Green). Getting her into play on turn 2 can help you mana ramp in a pretty serious way. Since getting our other Legendaries in play is pretty amazing, she can help take the edge off.

One of our few non-Angels, Sigarda, Champion of Light is a 4-cost (2 White, 1 Green) 4/4 Flying Trample, and she also grants power – +1/+1 to all Humans of yours. Then when she attacks, if you have three or more creatures with different powers, Coven lets you look at your top five. Reveal a Human creature from among them and put it into your hand, rest go on the bottom of the deck. We’ve got quite a few ways to buff in this deck and she’s among my favorites.

The super-fun Luminarch Aspirant is back for this, giving a creature you control a +1/+1 counter at the beginning of combat, for example. It’s one of the few old cards in the deck. Elite Spellbinder is back too to exile a non-land when it comes into play, and if we can buff it? It’s a 3/1 Flyer, so we can do some serious damage.

Gavony Dawnguard is a 3/3 with Ward 1, which turns it to Day if it’s neither Day nor Night when it enters play which is neat. Then, whenever it changes from day to night, you can look at the top four of your deck, and pick a creature that costs 3 or less and put it into your hand (and reveal it). So we’ve got a lot of options in this deck to find the creature you’re after. On the topic of getting useful stuff, Augur of Autumn is here! A 3-cost Human Druid, they let you see the top of your deck at any time, and can play lands from there. If you have Coven triggered, you can also cast creatures from the top of your library!

With these cards, you’re never out of options. So we’ve got all these ways to get creatures, and extra mana just lying about. We can spam human tokens through Maja as well. What do we do when we have an abundance of mana? Intrepid Adversary is going to seal the deal for us. A 3/1 Lifelink, when it comes into play, you can pay 2 mana (1 white) as many times as you want.

This grants it a Valor Counter for each time you pay the mana. Creatures you control get +1/+1 for each Valor Counter on Intrepid Adversary. Suddenly, we stack counters to the ceiling. This is how we just smash people into dust, combined with our other buffs. We also have one more Angel, Sigardian Savior to help bring back Katilda, should something happen to her. The downside to the deck si we have quite a few 3+ cost creatures in the deck.

That’s why I think it’s less Aggro, more Midrange. Once we get the ball rolling, it’s hard to stop the momentum though. Between our buffing allies, we can swing much safer, much harder, each turn. That’s what I love about the deck. We just get stronger. Now, board wipe is still scary. We can potentially overcome it though.

Deck

4 Intrepid Adversary

2 Sigardian Savior

2 Augur of Autumn

2 Gavony Dawnguard

3 Sigarda, Champion of Light

4 Join the Dance

4 Luminarch Aspirant

4 Elite Spellbinder

2 Maja, Bretagard Protector

4 Overgrown Farmland

4 Branchloft Pathway

8 Plains

8 Forest

4 Katilda, Dawnhart Prime

I want to see Human Tokens still too, but I like this as a possible strong Humans deck. I wonder if Mono-White will be stronger though. Not having to stress mana fixing is a real serious boon. If we get momentum with this deck, it’s not going to be a hard-fought battle. So we attack as often as it’s safe, make our Humans get more and more powerful, and laugh as our opponents crumble under the weight of the endless human horde. It’s got a whole lot of potential.

Of course, there’s going to be at least one Teferi deck! Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset is wildly powerful. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a ridiculous version of a blue planeswalker. At least one or two expansions. This one’s more on the scale of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria though. A two-color Teferi with a seriously useful emblem that will not be hard to set up. What’s our wind condition going to be though? Either the other player gives up in sheer frustration, or we batter people with Imrith, Desert Doom or Hall of the Storm Giants perhaps.

Through Teferi, we can untap our Dragons, and allow them to be aggressive, and defensive, and untap lands to prepare for counterplay on the next turn. Since we’re running Foretell spells, we can prepare defenses in advance for Teferi, since he’s so very important to our success. There isn’t a lot of new in this deck, but just enough to allow success.

Oh, Teferi, you’re so powerful and you don’t even care. We have a few real classy cards though. So we’ll talk about Teferi first, and why he’s so powerful. A 4-cost legendary planeswalker with 4 Loyalty, he comes out swinging. Here are his abilities:

+1: Choose up to one target artifact, up to one target creature, and up to one target land. Untap the ones you control, and tap the ones your opponent’s control. Gain 2 life as well.

-2: Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them in your hand and the rest on the bottom of your deck.

-7: You get an emblem with: “Untap all permanents you control during each opponent’s untap step” and “You draw a card during each opponent’s draw step.”

Now, I both love and hate this card. We can slow down our opponent, prevent them from responding to us, or simply attack, and then untap our attackers, and leave some free, open mana. You could also tap a land for mana, use this, untap it, and do it again! The possibilities are endless. But we want to aim for that -7. That way we draw every turn regardless, and untap all of our permanents on our opponent’s turn! We will never stop countering you. Even better if we can cast Sea Gate Restoration to prevent us from having a maximum hand size.

We’re not always going to cast something every turn, so we want to stack as many options as possible. We can do so much with Foretell too. For those that don’t remember, cards with Foretell can be exiled facedown for 2 colorless mana. We can then cast them at a later date for the Foretell cost. It’s basically face-down cards in Yugioh.

In brief, Saw It Coming is a Counter, Alrund’s Epiphany makes tokens, and gives us an extra turn, Doomskar is a board wipe, Iron Verdict deals 5 damage to a tapped creature, and Starnheim Unleashed creates Angel Warrior tokens. Those are our Foretold cards, and I cannot stress enough how powerful Starnheim Unleashed can be. If we Foretell it, it’s a 1 White+X+X, and it will create X 4/4 white Angel Warrior tokens instead. We can get enough Angels to win the game, for sure.

If we need more mana in a pinch, Treasure Vault will be a worthwhile sacrifice. You can pay XX and tap/sac it to create X Treasure Tokens. These can be sacrificed for 1 mana of any color. Since we have two Dragon cards in our deck (8 total), Temple of the Dragon Queen is worth running as a land. We can reveal a Dragon card when we play it, to make it come into play untapped (or if we control a Dragon). It taps for 1 of the color we choose, and it’s not a Legendary.

Between the Angels and Iymrith, we have damage to win. Iymrith also lets us draw a card when it deals combat damage to a player! Can’t beat that! The Dragon Turtle is in the deck to prevent attackers from getting bold. It has Flash and is a ⅗, and when it comes into play you tap a creature an opponent controls. It stays untapped during their controllers’ next untap steps. Sounds like it just has to stay put and not be useful.

This is a deck you take slow and whittle away at your opponent’s aggression. You play Teferi and use your control spell to defend him until he’s got his Emblem. From there, you can just play another Teferi to replace the first (unless they perish). Now our opponent has no choice but to risk our counters and spells every single turn, no matter what.

Deck

2 Fateful Absence

4 Hall of Storm Giants

1 Plains

1 Island

4 Treasure Vault

4 Temple of the Dragon Queen

4 Deserted Beach

4 Hengegate Pathway

3 Emeria’s Call

1 Sea Gate Restoration

1 Alrund’s Epiphany

4 Doomskar

4 Iymrith, Desert Doom

1 Starnheim Unleashed

4 Memory Deluge

2 Iron Verdict

4 Saw It Coming

4 Dragon Turtle

2 Reject

2 Sunset Revelry

4 Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Sideboard

1 Disenchant

4 Divine Smite

1 Weathered Runestone

1 Pithing Needle

2 Annul

2 Sunset Revelry

2 Ray of Frost

2 Negate

I want to see an Esper version of this deck so we have even more options, but I like it as is. I think it has enough options to stop our opponent’s from standing in the way of Teferi. Its power is ridiculous, and the ability to always have lands untapped (and permanents) is major. We can have that Frost Giant ready to block, and all of our Dragons too. It’s so frustrating to deal with an opponent that can never run out of resources, and that’s what this deck feels like to me.

Back in Strixhaven, we discussed Fynn, the Fangbearer as a potential fun game-ender. He has also been brought up a few other times here on Esports Talk because he’s a very interesting creature. This is a mostly older deck, but with one singular card, the deck suddenly becomes very dangerous. But what makes Fynn, the Fangbearer so good? He’s a ⅓ Deathtouch, and whenever you have a creature with Deathtouch that deals combat damage to a player, they gain two poison counters. At 10 poison counters, that player loses the game immediately.

A downside is that we just don’t have a ton of really fun, useful Deathtouch creatures. There are a lot of Elves in this deck, but it’s not tribal. Our new card is a Human Warlock, and we also brought along Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. After all, it does make us double any counters we’d place (including Poison Counters). We have some serious firepower, and safety, and I love that. We don’t have to swing with Fynn, the Fangbearer, and can keep him safe. Now if only we could give him Vigilance. . .

Thankfully, our new card isn’t our only shot at victory.

Fynn, the Fangbearer’s ability to apply Poison Counters means we don’t have to struggle quite as hard against lifegain decks. They can have 500 life if they want. If I can put 10 poison counters down, they drop all the same. Overall, the strategy is essentially the same, but we’ve added a powerful new tool. We have the capacity to keep creating Elves that in turn create another fun Elf with them.

After all, we just want to make sure our attackers have Deathtouch while having Fynn, the Fangbearer is in play. That way we can overwhelm someone and sneak in Poison Counters out. So what are our options? Elvish Warmaster can give Elves we control gain +2/+2 and Deathtouch, for 7 mana (2 green). That’s not cheap! Binding the Old Gods is a 4-cost, 3-part Saga that has the final power that grants creatures we control Deathtouch until the end of turn. That’s also pretty neat, but you have to plan well for it.

This can be made easier with Circle of Dreams Druid, which taps for 1 green for each creature you have. This will make it significantly easier to pop abilities like that, and it would also make it easier to play our new, incredibly important card: Saryth, the Viper’s Fang. A ¾ Legendary Human, your other Untapped Creatures have Hexproof. Your other Untapped Creatures have Deathtouch! So you attack, grant them deathtouch!

If someone decides to slay them, you can use their final ability. Tap 1 colorless, and this, to untap another target creature or land you control. It’s sad that Saryth doesn’t get that Hexproof/Deathtouch, but that’s why we run four of her I suppose.

That’s what makes this deck so utterly powerful. Now we get easy Deathtouch without restriction. All you have to do tap a creature! We combine this with Elvish Warmaster and Tyvar Kell. Elvish Warmaster creates a 1/1 Elf Warrior token when one or more Elves come into play for you. Tyvar Kell’s +0 creates a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token. You can also use his +1 to put a +1/+1 counter on up to one Elf, which untapped it and grants it Deathtouch for the turn.

Oh, and Elves all tap for mana. So we can afford this stuff, and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. Tyvar’s -6 is an Emblem that reads, “Whenever you cast an Elf spell, it gains Haste until end of turn and you draw two cards.” You’re going to spiral wildly out of control with these ways to get Deathtouch. As long as Fynn, the Fangbearer is in play, we can win incredibly easily. Sure we could win without him, but it takes way longer.

With Saryth in play, you can’t directly target Fynn, and you no longer have to attack with him. You have more tokens and viable creatures to swing out with. Then, you pair it with Vorinclex, who doubles the counters, and it’s suddenly very easy to make this work.

Deck

4 Jaspera Sentinel

2 Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

3 Lair of the Hydra

4 Tajuru Blightblade

4 Fynn, the Fangbearer

4 Elvish Warmaster

4 Harald, King of Skemfar

2 Circle of Dreams Druid

3 Binding the Old Gods

2 Tyvar Kell

3 Harald Unites the Elves

4 Necroblossom Snarl

4 Darkbore Pathway

10 Forest

3 Swamp

4 Saryth, the Viper’s Fang

Do I think this will be a Tier 1 deck? Sadly probably not. But I love the idea, and I want to see it work. All we need in this deck is some potential Trample or First Strike to make this combat damage easier to get through. We can do a lot with this deck and really start to get out of hand quickly. We have low-cost Elves, some that already have Deathtouch, ways to make more Elves, and then we can also weaken the enemy line and attack safer. It’s just so much fun to do.

I wasn’t really a fan of Green/Black control in the last couple of expansions. They were neat, but it didn’t feel strong. It didn’t have chutzpah! Sure, Ebondeath, Dracolich is a good way to put pressure down, and Lolth, Spider Queen can deal some frustrating levels of damage. She makes sure we deal 8 damage each combat if we can’t hit that hard, depending on if she has her Emblem available or not. But now, we’ve got some incredibly powerful new cards. But there’s a combo going here that we can allow for an absolutely massive amount of damage out of virtually nowhere:

Willow Geist + Wrenn and Seven! We want as many cards to hit our grave as possible, but not lands. We want our lands, and through Wrenn and Seven, we can. Between that and our other self-mill cards in Green/Black, we can set up some really frustrating situations for our opponents. Now, this deck is only legal in Best-of-One MTG Arena as far as I’m aware. That’s because of World Shaper. Now, you can easily remove this from the deck and apply other cards. You could add another pair of Tapping at the Window, perhaps another Ebondeath or Wrenn and Seven to round it out.

We’re going to drop a bunch of cards in the grave and then pick them back out when we need them most. If we’re going to do this, Willow Geist must be in play. A 1/1 Trample, whenever one or more cards would leave your graveyard, Willow Geist gets a +1/+1 counter. It’s not per card, so it’s not going to suddenly swell into a horrifying creature.

However, there are plenty of ways to have cards leave our graveyard! We can make this card grow and grow nice and slow. Deathbonnet Sprout can help, when it transforms. At the beginning of your upkeep, you mill a card. Then if there are three or more creature cards in your grave, transform it into Deathbonner Hulk. Now it’s a 3/3, and at the beginning of your upkeep, you can choose to exile a card from a graveyard. If it’s a creature card, give this a +1/+1 counter.

You can choose to exile an enemy card (creature) to make this bigger, or you can exile a card you don’t need from your grave to buff Willow Geist. Now, you can keep buffing Willow Geist by separate instances of exiling. We can follow up with Witherbloom Command. It lets us choose two abilities out of four:

Player mills three cards, and then you return a land from your grave to your hand.

Destroy noncreature, nonland permanent with Mana Value 2 or less.

Target creature gets -1/-1 until the end of turn.

Target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

It doesn’t matter if you mill yourself or not! If you have a land in the grave, mill your opponent, or do it to yourself anyway for more options. Either way is just fine. Especially if you have Flashback cards (like Tapping at the Window). If you put Ebondeath, Dracolich in the grave early, it can still come back. Cast a second one and put it in play, and when it dies, you can recast the other (or the first one), thanks to its passive.

Tapping at the Window is great because you look at your top three, and reveal a creature card to put in hand. The rest go into the grave. Since it has Flashback, you can cast it from your grave and then exile it. We can also do this through Graveyard Trespasser. Whenever it enters play or attacks, you can exile a card from a graveyard. If a creature card is picked, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Its Nightbound form, Graveyard Glutton does the same, but with up to two cards, instead of one.

We can use these to make Willow Geist grow and grow, over time. We can make a bigger creature faster with Wrenn and Seven. Wrenn and Seven is a new green planeswalker with 5 Loyalty, for 5 Mana. It has four powers, and they’re all great. Here’s what they do:

+1: Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all the lands revealed this way into your hand. All others go to your grave.

+0: Put any number of land cards from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.

-3: Create a green Treefolk token with Reach and “This creature’s power and toughness is equal to the number of lands you control.”

-8: Return all permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand. You have an emblem with “You have no maximum hand size.”

Returning all your permanents to your hand won’t affect the Geist much, but it’s the +1 and -3 that are also a great combo. If you’re flooded with lands, that +0 is going to be mighty. Then you make a huge Treefolk and batter someone with it again and again. These two are great ways to win. Lolth, Spider Queen also goes a long way for us. Whenever a creature of ours dies, we put a loyalty counte ron her, and she has a base of 4. Her +0 is great since you draw a card and lose 1 life. She can also create a pair of 2/1 Black spider tokens with Menace and Reach.

But her -8 is an Emblem. Now, “Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage by one or more creatures you control, if that player lost less than 8 life this turn, they lose life equal to the difference.” So if you deal damage with that 2/1 spider, now the opponent also loses 6 life in addition. It really adds up.

We take our time with this deck and use Infernal Grasp and annoying creatures to keep people out, while setting up these win conditions. I want to discuss World Shaper briefly though. It’s a 3/3 for 4, and whenever it attacks, you can put the top three of your deck into the grave. Then, when it dies, all land cards in your graveyard return to play tapped. That’s what makes the Treefolk terrifying. This deck does a surprising amount of damage, pretty much out of nowhere.

Deck

4 Graveyard Trespasser (MID) 104

8 Forest (MID) 277

4 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107

2 Lolth, Spider Queen (AFR) 112

4 Deathbonnet Sprout (MID) 181

6 Swamp (MID) 273

4 Willow Geist (MID) 207

4 Necroblossom Snarl (STX) 269

2 Tapping at the Window (MID) 201

3 Wrenn and Seven (MID) 208

3 World Shaper (RIX) 151

4 Witherbloom Command (STX) 248

4 Darkbore Pathway (KHM) 254

4 Binding the Old Gods (KHM) 206

2 Woodland Chasm (KHM) 274

2 Ebondeath, Dracolich (AFR) 100

I think this is going to be a dark horse deck. Not a top-tier demolisher of dreams, but certainly fun to play. You could always adjust it if you need more removal, by taking out the World Shaper for other spells. It’s satisfying to hit someone with gigantic creatures with trample. If your opponent has no removal, that Willow Geist (or multiples) will make someone very very frustrated. Let it grow and swing, grow and swing. If you have mana for example, you can block with Ebvondeath, let it die, and re-cast it on your opponent’s turn, only to make the Willow Geist grow again.

I haven’t seen too many three-colored decks yet. That said, I love them, and Esper/Grixis are my two favorites. I’ve seen this as an alternate to Izzet Spells but doesn’t use the Thermo-Alchemist and the Poppet. Instead, we’re focused on Dragons! We have Goldspan Dragon, Smoldering Egg, Moonveil Regent, and Galazeth Prismari in the deck as a whole. Galazeth in particular is a blessing, because it not only creates a Treasure Token, and makes your artifacts (Treasure Tokens) can be tapped for 1 mana of any color!

That way, we have a steady supply of mana for casting spells, important ones at that. As Ashmouth Dragon deals two damage to any target when we cast an instant or sorcery. If we’ve always get mana at the ready, we’re just going to steamroll people. Smoldering Egg/Ashmouth Dragon is such an amazing card and is one of my top rares in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Why did we bother to slap some Black Cards into the deck? Because they’re great! We run the black spells entirely for control purposes – specifically, deleting creatures. The sideboard has a few of those too. In the mainboard, we run the new Infernal Grasp. It will destroy a creature and cost you 2 life. Worth it, I think. Then Shadows’ Verdict exiles all creatures and planeswalkers that cost 3 or less, and the same for all planeswalkers.

It’s very much a last-ditch effort because it can delete our Smoldering Egg and we don’t want that. It’s very important. Smoldering Egg comes in as a 0/4 with Defender, and when we cast an Instant or Sorcery, we put a number of Ember Counters on this, equal to the Mana spent on the cast spell. If it has 7 or more Ember Counters on it, transform the Smoldering Egg at that moment to Ashmouth Dragon. Now we have a 4/4 Flyer, that deals 2 damage to any target when we cast Instants and Sorceries.

Other than hitting people with Dragons, that’s our primary source of damage. We have a few other important dragons. For example, we’ve talked about Goldspan Dragon all sorts of times. A 4/4 Flyer/Haste for 5, creates a Treasure Token whenever it’s the target of a spell or it attacks. Our Treasure Tokens also can be sacced for two mana. Galazeth Prismari helps here since it allows us to tap them for 1 mana instead of sacrificing them.

Moonveil Regent is okay in this deck, but it’s not as potent as some other Dragons. A 4/4 Flyer for 4, it gives you the option to discard your hand whenever you cast a spell. If you do, draw a card for each of that spell’s colors. In this deck, a cap of two. You could always wait until you have 2 or fewer cards in the deck, cast Expressive Iteration, and get two cards back. Whenever this dies, it deals X to any target, where X is the number of colors among permanents you control. Again, this has a cap of 2. So it’s okay. It’s good for 4 flying damage at the very least.

Another use for this dragon is Dragon’s Fire, a 2-cost Instant. Most of the deck is Instants and Sorceries, but this one allows us to reveal a Dragon. If we reveal a Dragon or chose a Dragon as we cast this spell, Dragon’s Fire deals damage equal to the power of that card or creature instead. As an additional cost to casting this, we can reveal a Dragon from our hand, or choose a Dragon we control. That way we hit a planeswalker or creature for 4 damage, and 2 damage to the enemy player if our Ashmouthis out.

The remainder of our deck is pretty much Instants and Sorceries. Memory Dulge, Negate, Alrund’s Epiphany, and Shatterskull Smashing. It’s all about balancing our dragons and spells. I don’t want to cast too many spells until Ashmouth is in play. Just enough to make sure we get the transformation. If things aren’t going well we could technically transform it in one turn, with Shatterskull Smashing. The same goes for a Flashback Memory Deluge. We’re going to win by hitting the other player with Dragons and casting spells to punish with extra damage.

We can drop a late-game Alrund’s Epiphany (or Foretell to set it up for later), to give us an extra turn. As long as our opponent has no flyers, we’re just gonna splash down on people with impunity.

Deck

1 Island

1 Galazeth Prismari

4 Shipwreck Marsh

4 Haunted Ridge

4 Smoldering Egg

3 Moonveil Regent

2 Infernal Grasp

4 Temple of the Dragon Queen

1 Hall of Storm Giants

4 Dragon’s Fire

4 Expressive Iteration

2 Blightstep Pathway

4 Goldspan Dragon

4 Alrund’s Epiphany

3 Riverglide Pathway

3 Clearwater Pathway

4 Shatterskull Smashing

2 Shadows’ Verdict

3 Negate

3 Memory Deluge

Sideboard

2 Crippling Fear

1 Cinderclasm

1 Disdainful Stroke

2 Infernal Grasp

4 Malevolent Hermit

2 Duress

2 Pithing Needle

1 Prismari Command

I’m a fair fan of this deck. I like the idea of it, and in my experience, it tends to run against things without flyers. Maybe I’m just lucky. We can make sure to have plenty of extra mana if we get Galazeth and Goldspan, but it’s not as necessary. It’s just as good to sac them for 2 mana. We’ve got damage spells for planeswalkers and creatures, and when it’s set up, every spell we have deals damage! Negate? 2 damage. Infernal Grasp? 2 damage! All told, it’s a lot of fun.